Thursday, December 18, 2014

House Joint Resolution 523, which established the schedule
for the 2015 General Assembly Session, has been introduced, and if it is, as
expected, adopted without amendment, the schedule for the session ahead is no
longer guess work.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Governor
Terry McAuliffe presented his budget amendments to the money committees (House
Appropriations, House Finance and Senate Finance) of the General Assembly this
morning.The full speech is available
here.

Here is what
our Governor said about public education:

EDUCATION

More than any other priority, Virginia’s future
economic success is staked upon our public education system. If we are
going to attract the jobs of today and create the jobs of tomorrow, we must
constantly improve the quality of the education we offer every Virginia child.

Today, I am proud to announce that my budget
recommendations contain no cuts or program reductions for elementary and
secondary education and no additional cuts to higher education in Virginia.

But we can’t be satisfied with simply doing no
harm. Education is too important. So I am targeting much-needed dollars to help
schools facing the most daunting challenges, so that a child’s future is not
determined by his or her zip code. It’s time to stop kicking the can down the
road and start taking action.

My budget proposal includes $713,000 to help
train principals in underperforming schools so they can steer their teachers
and students toward greater academic success. Those principals and others at
our local schools will also get extra help from school improvement and
curriculum specialists hired at the state level.

Of course, a student can’t be expected to ace a
test if he or she is hungry. Today, only half of all children who could benefit
from starting their day with a healthy breakfast are able to do so. That’s why
my budget includes $537,000 to enhance our school breakfast program, to help
these students start their day ready to learn. By contributing just a
nickel extra per breakfast, schools will now be better able to overcome
logistical challenges to making breakfasts a part of the school day.

These efforts build on the work done this year by
the First Lady, who has worked to bridge the nutritional divide and solve
childhood hunger. She’s achieving those goals while promoting Virginia’s
agriculture economy and supporting local programs related to community
nutrition, food access and health strategies.

And I am not forgetting about our teachers. I am
taking proceeds from the sale of unclaimed stocks and bonds turned over to the
state and significantly reducing the unfunded liability of our teacher
retirement fund. I am committing $150 million to protect teachers and to reduce
liabilities on local government balance sheets. This action will save money
through reduced future retirement payments for the state as well as localities.

An additional $75 million from the stock sales
will go to the Literary Fund to fuel school construction loans and interest
rate subsidies on loans through the Virginia Public School Authority.

Although my budget contains no new money for
preschool, I am proposing a common sense policy that will allow us to keep
making progress on early childhood education. We will allow school systems that
are maxing out their use of state pre-K funding to receive extra money from
dollars not used in other divisions.

And of course last week I was proud to announce
that Virginia has been awarded a $17.5 million U.S. Department of Education
Preschool Expansion Grant that will allow the Commonwealth to serve as many as
1,600 additional at-risk four-year-olds in new, high-quality preschool classes.

Budget Highlights for PreK-12

Governor McAuliffe’s Proposed Budget Amendments 12-17-14

Faced
with sluggish economy and sagging revenues, the state had a shortfall in
the budget approved last Spring of almost $900 million.The Governor’s budget does not make any substantive cuts
to K-12 over the biennium.

The
contribution to offset the unfunded liability in teacher retirement fund
saves the state money and also saves localities as rates can be
adjusted:FY 2016 = $10.4 million
(state)

Increases
in sales tax revenue allows reduction in other state funds:FY 2015 = $2.4 million andFY 2016 = $3.6 million

The Governor’s
presentation of his amendments today is the beginning of the budgetary
process.As the late, great Senator
Hunter Andrews used to say, “The Governor proposes, and the General Assembly
disposes.”The Governor’s presentation
is significant in that it singled out public education and spared us from cuts.We can only hope that the General Assembly
will follow his lead in this regard, and we hope that Governor McAuliffe will work
with us in the years ahead to restore the cuts we have experienced since 2008.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

As Special Session I, which began on March 24, continues, we
can count our blessings.Headlines such
as “BUDGET AGREEMENT TO REDUCE SPENDING UP TO 3.5
PERCENT, SPARES K-12 EDUCATION” seem to say it all.It appears that the Governor, the House and
the Senate are in agreement regarding House Bill 5010, which will amend the
current biennial budget (Chapter 2 of the Acts of the Assembly of 2014).They had to adjust the budget to address a
biennial deficit expected to be $881.5 million dollars greater than what was
anticipated by the budget adopted when the regular session ended in early
March.

The good news is that public school funding was not cut, and
the cuts to localities were held to $30 million per year.That is less than 0.3%.Local governments will actually have to send
that amount back to the state (reversion).The determination of where these cuts are made on the local level is a
matter of local discretion.

Thanks to our Governor, to Senators Stosch and Colgan, and
to Delegate Chris Jones for these actions which will spare our schools from
additional cuts.

But, let’s step back and ask a few questions.First, is this shortfall indicative of a tax
structure in need of revision?It appears
that our tax system lacks adequacy, reliability and (when one with an income of
$18,000 pays that same rate as one with an income of $1 billion) fairness.When we are relying on the Rainy Day Fund to
balance the budget in a time of economic growth – something is wrong.

These stories of sparing public education from cuts mask the
reality that even without cuts, we are spending $227 less per pupil now than we
did in 2009, and if you adjust for inflation, it’s more like $907 (2016) less.And does this story, which is not in the
headlines, relate to another headline you may have seen, “MORE THAN 30% OF VA. SCHOOLS FAIL TO WIN ACCREDITATION”?

It’s interesting to see the
many explanations for more schools failing to win accreditation.The standards have become tougher.The state’s demographics are changing.I even heard too much texting and too little
reading.There are so many variables at
play that no one can point to a single cause with certainty.

But, I wonder if we are
avoiding what may be two significant variables.Virginia ranks 38th in state per-pupil support and 37th
in teacher pay.As funds have been cut,
classes have grown larger, elective courses have been eliminated, and
after-school programs have been eliminated.We are doing very little to attract and retain the best teachers to our
classrooms.Is the disinvestment in the
education of the next generation and our failure to support the teaching
profession beginning to take its toll?

Monday, August 18, 2014

The Governor addressed the money committees of the General
Assembly Friday morning. He detailed the
revenue shortfall faced by the Commonwealth.
The total budget reductions required after tapping the $846 million in
budgetary reserves included in the current budget, and withdrawing $705 million
from the Rainy Day Fund, total $882 million, $345.5 in FY 2015 and $536 million
in FY 2016.

Finance Secretary Brown outlined the steps ahead:

Budget actions will be identified and implemented to address
the reduction in the fiscal year’s 2015 and 2016
forecast.

– Prepare and review of
agency-developed reduction plans.

– Implement agency budget reductions to
address the shortfall in the current fiscal year.

– Make recommendations in the 2015
amended budget bill for additional items that require General Assembly
approval.

The Governor pledged to try to protect public education,
transportation, and health care.

As details regarding reductions are revealed, we will send them
your way. We anticipate that any cuts to
public education won’t be large, but our schools are dying
the death of multiple small wounds since 2004 when we last saw a significant
increase in funding. We have lost all
that we gained then.

In the short term, maybe lawmakers should heed the advice offered
by the editor of The Virginian Pilot:

This is going to be rough, and it may well necessitate the
kind of draconian cuts undertaken six years ago, at the start of the Great
Recession. But it doesn't need to be as bad as it's shaping up to be,
particularly if lawmakers come to their senses and accept the piles of federal
tax dollars sent to Washington by Virginians and available for return to the
commonwealth. (Medicaid
expansion)

But, in the meantime, this shortfall should lead thoughtful
observers to question the adequacy of Virginia’s tax structure. One of the things our Governor said on Friday
was, “This past fiscal year marks the first time
that general fund revenues have declined in the Commonwealth other than in a
national recession.” As a consequence, we
will be dipping into the Revenue Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund)
when our state’s economy and our nation’s
economy is [sic] expanding.

This begs two questions.
First, if we are dipping into this fund when times are good, will there
be a sufficient balance to protect core services when we hit the next
recession? Second, do we need to examine
the adequacy of our tax structure? Is
our tax structure providing sufficient revenues to support core services?

In short, Virginia faces fundamental change. For decades, our economic growth has been
driven by ever increasing federal defense spending in Northern Virginia and
Hampton Roads. This funding has been
cut, and it appears that more cuts are on the horizon. The consequence of these cuts and an expanding
economy is high dollar defense related jobs replaced by low paying jobs in the
service sector. This drives down income
tax revenues.

This leads to the most interesting passage in McAuliffe’s
speech:

… we have
already seen the damage sequestration has done to our economy so far.

And the
Secretary of Defense has indicated, if no changes are made by 2016, an
additional $50 billion in defense cuts will have to be made.

We all know
of Northern Virginia’s economic reliance on the Department of Defense, and in
Hampton Roads, military spending accounts for 42% of the area’s Gross Regional
Product.

If I have
learned anything after more than 40 years in business, it’s that you don’t sit
idly by when your largest customer cuts spending. You get out there and hustle
to find new sources of revenue so that you can keep your business
healthy.

That is why
we must work together to build and maintain the best public infrastructure
system anywhere in the world, so that we can attract the next generation of
jobs in cybersecurity, biosciences, data analytics, aerospace and other
industries that are building the economy of tomorrow.

Whether it’s
the Pentagon, a Fortune 500 company or a small business, when decision makers
start looking for a new location, they look at which state offers the best
public schools, the strongest transportation networks, the highest quality
health care, the safest communities, and the cleanest environment.

These are all
enormous strengths for Virginia that contribute to the quality of life that our
families enjoy. But if we are going to out compete 49 other states and Build a
New Virginia Economy, we cannot afford to be complacent.

The Governor is right, we cannot afford to be complacent, but
Virginia has a record of complacency when it comes to supporting public
education and the other core services.

On the same day the Governor gave his speech, our friends at the
Commonwealth Institute (CI) released an “infographic”
detailing Virginia’s declining investment in the
education of her children. CI accurately
asserts that, “School funding
per pupil is down 16 percent compared to 2009, after adjusting for
inflation.”

Virginia can do better, and must do better if
we are to, as the Governor said, “Build a New Virginia Economy.”

Where do we stand now?

39th in state per-pupil funding,
pre-K-12

37th in teacher pay

13th in state corrections
expenditure per offender

10th in wealth

46th in state and local taxes as a
percent of personal income

Virginia can do better. Our
politicians talk a good game, but the truth is in the numbers, and the numbers
reflect that public education is a low priority. Does this reflect the will of the people of
Virginia? Absolutely not! The most recent Commonwealth Education Poll
(2013-2014) reveals that, “Virginians remain strongly supportive of funding for
the public schools. Almost two-thirds of
Virginians (65%) say that Virginia schools do not have enough funds to meet
their needs ….”

We have a governor who is inclined to help us, but, at this
point, his ability to advance an agenda is compromised by the fact that his
party controls neither the House nor the Senate, and I suspect that even he
will need a serious push if we are to see bold action.

As Shakespeare said, “Timing is everything.” There is little opportunity for meaningful
progress in the short legislative session of 2015, but 2016 will be a budget
year, and there is an election for all members of the General Assembly in
November of 2015. Starting with the end
of the 2015 session, February 28, 2015, we will need to start making
noise. We should follow the advice of
Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute:

Virginians who care
about the quality of their local schools should be asking their state
legislators, local elected officials and school boards some tough questions
about how we can all bring to the table the resources that Virginia’s kids
need.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

As far as VEA is concerned, it appears that Special Session
I has essentially concluded.The
remaining issue which could have a long range impact on education funding,
Medicaid Expansion, may be decided by the judicial branch.

From a legislative perspective, we did make some gains in 2014:

A-F School Grading Delay

SOL Reform

Pension Funding

From 5 to 10 Days to Contest Dismissal

Lactation Support

From a budget perspective the high point of the session was
Governor McAuliffe’s introduction of his budget, which used the $225 million in
savings achieved by expanding Medicaid, in part, to provide the state share of
a 2% salary increase for teachers and support personnel and included language
to allow local school divisions to participate in the state’s health insurance
program.

Economic projections tanked, Senator Puckett’s resignation
changed the balance in the Senate, and the House successfully, at least for
now, blocked the Medicaid Expansion, which would have freed up General Fund
dollars for education.So the session,
which at points had raised hopes, ended “Not with a bang but a whimper.”

One House member, as he left the Capitol yesterday, shared
his assessment that education had done well, as the $404.2 million for the
rebenchmarking remained in the final budget.I guess it’s a matter of perspective, but we will still be running our
schools on less than we had in 2009.Our
average teacher salary is 37th in the nation, $7,456 behind the
national average, and our state per-pupil funding for PreK-12 ranks 39th.We are the 10th wealthiest state
in the nation, and our per-capita state and local taxes as a percent of
personal income ranks 46th.

The General Assembly seems all about balancing the budget
and little about support for our public schools.Virginia can clearly do better, and, as this
session ends, we need to prepare to keep up the fight in the 2015 session.

Click here for a detailed report on the budget including
funding for each division.

Senator Puckett’s resignation changed the balance of power
in the Senate, and the Republicans reorganized the Senate last night.Click here to see the new Senate Committee
assignments.

These three events created a perfect storm which led to a
very disappointing budget outcome last night.

Hastened by the anticipated revenue shortfall in the next
biennium and the need to pass a budget by June 30 to access the “Rainy Day Fund”
to partially offset this shortfall, the General Assembly worked frantically to
pass the 2014-2016 biennial budget.This
budget includes a $847.5 million revenue reserve fund and anticipates a $707.5
million withdrawal from the “Rainy Day Fund” to achieve balance.

The good news is that rebenchmarking and VRS funding were
not cut.The bad news is that we lost
the teacher and support staff salary increases and the language allowing school
division participation in the state health insurance program.

Had Medicaid Expansion been included in the budget, the
resulting $225 million in savings could have offset some of the shortfall and
consequently have reduced the cuts.

The new Republican Senate majority, empowered by Puckett’s
resignation and fearful of Brat-inspired Tea Party primaries, inserted Senator
Stanley’s amendment thwarting any effort by the Governor to expand Medicaid
without the approval of the General Assembly.

Will the Governor sign the budget, line-item veto this
section of the budget, or will he veto the entire budget and send the General
Assembly back to work?

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Yesterday,
the House Appropriations Committee heard a report from David Rosenberg and Mark
Vucci, Senior Attorneys with Legislative Services, regarding what power the
Governor would have in the event of a failure on the part of the legislative
branch to produce a budget by June 30.

I believe
they presented the case most to the advantage of the legislative branch –
indicating that the Governor would have no power to spend funds.Among the “Key Take Aways” was the statement,
“In the absence of an appropriations law, the Governor could declare an
emergency but moneys will not be available to address the emergency conditions.”

I’m a bit
skeptical of this view.Should the
Governor declare an emergency and keep the jails in operation and keep the
State Police on duty to protect public safety, would the Supreme Court rule
against him?I think not.

They also offered
a very narrow interpretation of Article 10, Section 7, presenting a view that
the ”two years and six months” has
already expired.I’m thinking that this
will be subject to the interpretation of the courts.

The one
thing that they said that I know to be true is that if a budget is not produced
we will be in uncharted waters.

Equally sobering
was the assessment from Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown when he was asked
how failure to produce a budget might affect Virginia’s bond rating:“If we
go past June 30th it puts us in a different posture with them [bond
rating agencies].If we go past June 30th
it will change the perspective from which they view Virginia.”

All this
talk of uncharted waters leads me to reject Santayana’s “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” in favor of Allen Ginsberg’s “There
is nothing to be learned from history anymore.We’re in science fiction now.”

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

“If there is no budget by
June 30, will Virginia’s public schools shut down?” This is the $7 billion
dollar a year question. To my knowledge we will be entering uncharted
territory.If a budget is not adopted
by July 1, the Governor has said publicly that he will not allow the government
to shut down.His authority to keep the
government going will surely be questioned.I can't find much in the Constitution of Virginia to grant the Governor spending
authority beyond December 11, 2014.However, Code provisions appear to empower the Governor.

The period of July 1
through December 11st is covered by Article X, Section 7:

No money shall be paid out of the State treasury except in
pursuance of appropriations made by law; and no such appropriation shall be
made which is payable more than two years and six months after the end of
the session of the General Assembly at which the law is enacted authorizing the
same.

This passage is certainly
subject to interpretation.If the budget
bill references two years, is the Constitutional language relevant?If so,when does the 30 month span begin?Delegate Bob Marshall, who is an astute scholar of the Virginia
Constitution, asserts that it begins on June 11, 2012, when the General
Assembly last amended and the Governor signed the biennial budget bill. Could this provision, intended to allow the
payment of invoices still outstanding, be used to fund the government at the
level established by the 2012-14 biennial budget until December 11?

If a 2014-2016 budget is
not enacted prior to December 11, our focus shifts to other portions of the
law.The second sentence in Article V,
Section 7 reads as follows:

The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed
forces of the Commonwealth and shall have power to embody such forces to repel
invasion, suppress insurrection, and enforce the execution of the laws.

This section of the Code
of Virginia is also relevant (§ 44-146.17.):

(7) Whenever, in the opinion of the Governor, the
safety and welfare of the people of the Commonwealth require the exercise of
emergency measures due to a threatened or actual disaster, he may declare a
state of emergency to exist;

Up to this time
conventional wisdom has been that his power would allow the Governor to keep
governmental operations related to public safety in operation, such as police
protection and continued operation of the jails.However, the cessation of services such as
foster care, support services to the disabled, public hospitals, public
education, and road repairs are just a few examples of what could be viewed as
an emergency.

Would the Governor cite
"the execution of laws," and, for example, say that the Standards of
Quality are laws enabling him to keep the schools running under the funding
level of the previous budget?Would he
declare a state of emergency?In either
case, the Attorney General will likely be asked to weigh in, and this would then
head to court, as members of the legislative branch would assert that only
funds which are appropriated can be spent.

If the court were to side
with the Governor, the ruling could take the pressure off of future
legislatures to produce budgets on time.If the court were to side with the legislature, we'd have at least a
partial shutdown.I'm sure the courts
would specify that the operation of jails and law enforcement would continue.

The specter of this issue
appearing before the court would certainly put great pressure on the General Assembly
to act.We would be in a Constitutional
crisis, and the court's ruling might alter the balance of power between the three
branches of government.It would be
extremely unwise for the legislature to sit back and take this risk.

School boards could try to keep
things going in the short-run with local funding - this may be easier for
Alexandria compared with Lee County.Local governments can pass a budget without having all the cash on hand,
and the decisions regarding appropriations obviously will affect the ability of
the school board to keep schools going.

We should keep our ears to
the ground on this, but if anybody other than a Virginia Supreme Court justice
tells you with certainty that they know what will happen, should this issue
come their way, take it with a grain of salt.

Monday, April 7, 2014

The Senate Finance Committee reported SB 5003, which
includes a number of the amendments offered by Governor McAuliffe in his
proposed budget.

If you remember, VEA sought state funding for a 6% salary
increase this year, and Senator Puckett and Delegate Chafin carried our
amendments.Unfortunately, neither the
Senate nor the House included any salary funding for public school employees in
their respective budget bills.The House
offered a 1% increase beginning on July 1, 2015 in conference, as the regular session ended, but the
conferees could not agree on a budget.

When Governor McAuliffe introduced his budget bill, it
included 2% for teachers and support personnel and the statewide health insurance
option, but this bill was killed by the House Appropriations Committee.

Today the Senate Finance Committee reported its own budget
bill (SB 5003).The Senate included VEA’s
top two priorities in their substitute, the 2% salary increase beginning on
April 1, 2015, and the local school board option to participate in the state health
plan.

The Senate bill includes Marketplace Virginia, which will close
the health insurance coverage gap and provide health insurance coverage to
hundreds of thousands of Virginian’s.

The Senate will meet at 11 tomorrow, followed by a meeting
of the House at 4.One never knows for
sure, but it is expected that the Senate will pass SB 5003, which will then be
communicated to the House.

If the bill goes to conference, the difference between the
ensuing conference and where things stood at the regular session’s end is that
both chambers will have teacher and support salary funding on the table (1%
House/2%Senate), and the Senate will have the statewide health insurance option
on the table.Thanks to your hard work,
we are in a better position than we were when the regular session ended in a
budget impasse.

Let’s hope the House will request a committee of conference
tomorrow and end the games.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

On April 1, VEA President Meg Gruber was joined by Charlotte Hayer (Richmond), Kimberly Adams (Fairfax), and Don Wilm (Chesterfield) at the Senate Finance Committee to support Governor McAuliffe's budget proposal. I think you will find Meg's testimony most informative:

Chairman
Colgan, Chairman Stosch, committee members, ladies and gentlemen – I am Meg
Gruber, President of the Virginia Education Association. I represent teachers
and support personnel in all 132 school divisions across Virginia.

I speak in
support of SB 5003 and the Governor’s accompanying amendments, which will provide needed
additional funds to public education. Our state per-pupil support for public
education ranks 38th, our teacher salary ranks 37th, even
though we are the 9th wealthiest state in the nation.

Virginians
support better funding for our public schools. This year’s Commonwealth
Education Poll revealed that “65% of Virginians say schools do not have enough
funds to meet their needs,” and “75% say that the amount of funding affects
quality a great deal.” The poll also found that “Virginians are willing to pay
more in taxes to support school funding levels.”

As you know,
your colleagues in the more numerous legislative body do not agree with
Virginians in this regard—and that brings me to the issue at hand. As Joe
Flores clearly revealed to you at your November retreat, Medicaid expansion
offers a significant opportunity to take pressure off the
General Fund by providing funding for indigent care, and the medical care of
Department of Corrections inmates, for example. This use of federal funding,
with the federal taxpayer dollars paid by Virginians, will free up General Fund
dollars for our schools, and this is precisely what we see in Governor
McAuliffe’s budget proposal.

As you fulfill
your Constitutional obligation to “ensure that an educational program of high quality
is established and continually maintained” there is no more significant
variable under your control than our Commonwealth’s ability to attract and
retain teachers of high quality. Budget Amendment
78, Item 467 makes a step in the right direction in this regard, and it
puts public school employees on equal footing with other employee groups.

For years,
VEA has sought the option of participation in the state employee health plan
for school divisions. JLARC has estimated that this will save between $44 and
$64 million dollars annually. We thank this committee for securing funds for
the feasibility study, which was done in preparation for the 2014 session. Senator
Norment helped us with a study of this issue in 2007. Amendment 3, Item 81 jump starts this effort, and provides this
option to school divisions beginning on July 1, 2015.

We share
this committee’s commitment to addressing the needs of students in the
underperforming schools in Virginia. Amendment
15, Item 135 increases funding for the extended school year grant program,
a wise investment.

I have
highlighted just a few of Governor McAulliffe’s amendments, which are
reflective of the leadership our Governor has shown in offering his plan to
break the budget impasse that serves us so poorly. This budget invests $150
million dollars more in public education than did Senate Bill 30 in the regular
session.

From my
perspective, SB 5003, which substantially increases Virginia’s investment in
public education, and which substantially elevates the quality of healthcare to
our citizens most in need, is worthy of your support.

Monday, March 24, 2014

When neither
the House nor the Senate included salary increases for teachers and support
personnel, VEA went to work.We let
every elected official know how wrong-headed it is to ignore the fact that
Virginia’s teacher
salary is heading in the wrong direction (37th in the nation, and $7,456 behind
the national average).Many of our sent
cyber-lobby messages to Delegates, Senators and the Governor.

House
Republicans showed the first positive reaction, proposing state funding for a
1% salary increase on July 1, 2015. The cost of this increase in the biennial
budget is $40.4 million.

Today,
Governor McAuliffe showed that he listened, by proposing the state share of the
2% increase beginning on April 1, 2015 school year.This 2% increase will cover all SOQ funded
position, including support positions.The cost of this increase in the biennial budget is $100 million.

McAuliffe
also is attempting to undo what the House did when it defeated the statewide
health insurance option for school divisions (Yost HB 463 and Kilgore HB 1016
were both killed in House Appropriations despite the fact that they would have
saved the state between $44 and $66 million dollars a year).The McAullife amendment allows schools
divisions to participate in the state plan beginning on July 1, 2015.

In
additional to salary and health care provisions, the budgets amendments include
the following provisions:

Increased
funding for extended school year grants

It doubles
funding for the JVG dropout prevention program

It increases
pre-K funding

In all,
above and beyond the salary funding the Governor's amendments provide an
additional $30 million for public education.We will be providing detailed analysis in the days ahead.The Governor's proposal is clearly the
superior to the proposals of the House and Senate, but it will be a fight to
gain passage of the Governor's amendments.

It is
imperative that you call and email your delegate and senator urging support for
the Governors budget amendments.

If any of
you want to know the legislative process, here is what I think will happen.The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) took
up the Governor's budget bill (HB 5003) this afternoon.Delegate Dance moved to report.Delegate Landes offered a substitute motion
to pass the bill by indefinitely (PBI), and that motion carried.HAC then reported HB 5002, the bill that
reflects the House position when the regular session ended.The committee votes were along party lines
with the exception of Delegate Joannou, who voted with the Republicans.Presumably the Senate will adopt the Governor's
bill (HB 5003), and when the House communicates HB 5002 to the Senate, the
Senate will substitute HB 5003.The
House will reject the Senate substitute and request a committee of conference.The conference will then begin anew, the
difference will be that the Senate position will provide $89.6 million dollars
more for public education than was in the introduced budget - thanks to
Governor McAuliffe.Then the conferees
will begin the work of trying to develop an acceptable compromise.

The Senate
announced a 2 p.m. public hearing in Richmond on April 1.The next regular meeting of the Senate will
be on April 7th.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

This was
it!The final day of the regular
session, and the General Assembly decided on the final fate of five bills of
interest to VEA.

Del.
Greason's HB 930 and Sen. Deeds' SB 306, now identical, are the SOL reform
bills.Final action came down to the
final day, not over policy issues, but over how many Senator and Delegates will
sit on the SOL Innovation Committee.The
conference committee reports were approved by both chambers, and the bills now
head to the Governor's desk.

Del. Hope's
HB 1106, which calls for a review and report on the use of seclusion and
restraint in public and private schools.The final controversy was over which agency
would take on this charge:The Joint
Commission on Health Care, the Department of Education, or the Commission on
Youth.The Commission on Youth will
conduct the review and issue the report.Both chambers adopted the conference report, and the bill awaits the
Governor's signature.

Landes' HB1229 and Miller's SB 324 address the delay of A-F school grading implementation.The conference reports, adopted by both
chambers, call for a two year delay.These bills await the Governor's action.

Del.
O'Quinn's HB 1242 addresses how school boards with "tie breaker"
provisions select the tie breaker.This
is obscure to most of us, but some Southwest Virginia school boards have an
even number of members, and they appoint a tie breaker to resolve tie
votes.This individual has sometimes
been the crony of the power structure, and this bill requires that the tie
breakers be elected rather than hand-picked.The conference committee report was adopted by both chambers, and this
bill is headed for the Governor's desk.

Although
2014 Session adjourned Sine Die, it did so without adopting a budget.Consequently, the Governor is calling for a
special session beginning on March 24th.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Long day at the General Assembly as both chambers frequently
recessed to allow time for conference committees to meet and to facilitate
communication between the chambers.

The Senate and house have adopted the conference reports on
Senator Stuart's SB 532 and Delegate Cole's HB 134, the diabetes bills.The outcome was good for VEA, and if you want
to see the impact of lobbying and perfecting in committee, contrast the
introduced bill and the adopted conference report.VEA, VASS, VSBA and the lobbyists from the
various school divisions (the ducks) all worked on these two.They went from being bills we opposed to ones
we can applaud.

Both chambers go back into session on Saturday at 10, when the
conference reports on SOL reform and A-F school grading should be heard.

The Governor is calling for the special session on the budget on
March 24th.This should make
for a most interesting VEA Convention for your GR staff.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Please accept my apology and allow me to offer a correction
regarding my premature assertion that HB 930, Del. Greason's SOL reform bill,
was on the way to the Governor's desk.I
missed the fact that the Senate had amended the bill.The House has now rejected the Senate
amendments, and the Senate has insisted on its amendments and requested a committee
of conference. House conferees are Delegates
Greason, Rust and Brink, and Senate Conferees are Miller, Deeds, and McWaters.

The conferees have been named for the diabetes bills, Sen.
Stuart's SB 532 and Del. Cole's HB 134.They are Senators Barker, Deeds, and Stuart, and Delegates Cole, Dickie
Bell, and Keam.Both the Senate and
House language constitute a dramatic improvement over the introduced bill, but
we prefer the House language.

In regard to the A-F School Grading bills, Sen. Miller's SB 324
and Del. Lande's HB 1229 and heading for conference.The Senate conferees on SB 324 are Miller,
Barker, and Newman, and the House Conferees are Landes, Miller, and Bulova. The Senate conferees on HB 1229 are Miller,
Puller, and Carrico and the House conferees are Landes, Miller, and
Bulova.These conference committees are
to our advantage.Del. Miller is a fierce
opponent of A-F. I'm still hoping for a three year delay, but thinking it will be two.

We continue to meet with all urging support for funding for
teacher and support personnel salaries.The special session will offer VEA a new opportunity to fight for salary
funding.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I apologize for today’s late post.I had seven meetings today, and the last one
just ended.

Of yesterday’s three questions, “What will we call the sea
between Korea and Japan?” is the only one answered today.With the passage of Senator Marsden’s SB 2,
we will now call this body of water the East Sea.When I first saw this bill I had no idea that
hundreds of Koreans would come to Richmond in support of this bill.Nor did I know that the Japanese Consulate
would hire one of Richmond’s most prestigious law firms to lobby against
it.Well, the South Koreans won!Click here if you’d like to learn more about
the history of this controversy.SB 2
passed on a 82-16 vote.

In light of the passage of this bill, I’m seeking a sponsor
of a 2015 bill to change the name of the James River back to its original
Indian mane, Powhatan, a much more beautiful name.

We spent much of the day trying to convince all who would
listen that the budgets introduced in the special session should include
funding for teacher and support position salaries.

The Virginia Progressive Caucus held a press conference in support
of Medicaid Expansion this morning.Scott Surovell did an excellent job breaking down the benefits of
expansion for each House District.For
the sake of example, he asserted that if we used all of the General Fund
dollars freed up by the expansion for public education in the next biennium
Fairfax would gain $27.6 million, Prince William would gain $21.1 million,
Virginia Beach would gain $15.4 million, Danville would gain $1.87 million, and
Franklin County would gain $1.72 million.Sorovell assumed all the free dollars would go to public education.It is more likely that 30% of it would go to
education, but that would still be a tidy sum.